Drug Kingpin Pleads Guilty

Corruption Was Financed

June 17, 2003|By Ann W. ONeill Staff Writer

Ending 14 years of investigations into speedboat cocaine runs, bribed jurors and witnesses silenced by cash or bullets, one of the original cocaine cowboys pleaded guilty Monday to a single charge of laundering drug money that financed corruption in his 1996 trial.

Augusto Guillermo "Willy" Falcon, 47, admitted using cocaine profits to buy off witnesses and at least one juror at the trial, which ended with his and partner Salvador "Sal" Magluta's aquittal. Federal authorities say the two made $2 billion smuggling cocaine into the United States during the 1980s.

Once he was known as one of "the boys," as their cocaine conspirators called Falcon and Magluta. His hair and goatee now flecked with gray, the Miami Senior High School dropout and amateur speedboat racer agreed to a 20-year prison sentence, and to forfeit $1 million to the federal government, in Miami federal court.

With credit for time served, defense attorneys said, Falcon could be freed in as few as 10 years. But his future after that remains uncertain because Falcon, a native of Cuba, is not a U.S. citizen.

Although they were equal partners in the drug trade, Falcon's sentence will be a fraction of Magluta's. Lawyers for the prosecution and defense agreed Monday that Magluta was the driving force behind the scheme to buy witnesses and jurors. Falcon was aware of the plot, and benefited from it, they said.

Speaking on the courthouse steps after the plea hearing, Marcos Daniel JimM-inez, the U.S. Attorney for South Florida, said the case shows federal prosecutors will work relentlessly to protect the integrity of the justice system. Falcon and Magluta were "not allowed to walk away and that's the most important message the community can take from this," JimM-inez said.

Magluta, 48, was convicted in August of conspiring to obstruct justice and tamper with drug trial jurors and witnesses, but acquitted of scheming to kill three other witnesses. He is serving a 205-year sentence and has been ordered to forfeit $15 million.

Even at the end, the case did not come easily, as three prosecutors and five defense attorneys worked for nearly three hours to convince U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Seitz to accept the plea bargain.

Initially, the judge said she was "not inclined" to approve the deal. The time, and the fine, seemed scant when compared to the way the justice system was compromised, she said. She instructed the lawyers they'd have to convince her the plea bargain was in the public interest.

"Our country works because we are a country that supposedly is based on the rule of law, and no one is above the law," she said. "The bribery of jurors goes to the very heart of our justice system."

The lawyers finally swayed Seitz by pointing out that the protracted case finally will be laid to rest because Falcon won't be able to appeal. He has been in prison -- often in solitary confinement, sometimes in constraints -- since his arrest in 1991. And, attorneys said, assuming Falcon lives long enough to serve out the sentence, he could be deported or held indefinitely by immigration officials.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael P. Sullivan said the evidence against Falcon wasn't nearly as strong as that against Magluta, which included letters containing instructions on how to carry out the jury and witness tampering. And, he pointed out, the jury acquitted Magluta of the same money-laundering count Falcon now admits.

Had he been convicted of all charges, Falcon faced 22 to 27 years in prison.

Sullivan said outside the courtroom that the convictions vindicate federal prosecutors, who were convinced Falcon and Magluta were guilty and bought their acquittals. Falcon's plea is all the more significant, he said, because one of the organization's leaders finally has admitted it publicly.

The judge seemed particularly reluctant to limit Falcon's forfeiture to $1 million, considering all the money raked in by the Magluta-Falcon organization, also known as "The Company."

Defense attorney Jeff Weiner said the fortune was long ago spent on cocaine buys, extravagant living and lawyers and investigators to fight the federal drug cases.

According to court papers included with the signed plea agreement, Magluta and Falcon laundered nearly $20 million that was spent on lawyers for themselves and co-conspirators who refused to cooperate with the government.

Not all the money went to the legal professionals.

Jury foreman Michael Moya was sentenced in 1999 to more than 17 years in prison for taking nearly $400,000 in bribes from the Magluta-Falcon organization.

The case has led investigators to dig up back yards and search houses in Miami-Dade and Broward counties for hidden drug money. Already, some $6 million has been seized. And, prosecutors said, the plea bargain doesn't prevent them from keeping any money they might find in the future.

The legal saga began in 1980, when Falcon and Magluta pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking charges in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. They fled, jumped bond on a California cocaine-trafficking case, and eluded capture until 1991.

While on the run, they continued to smuggle cocaine, using drug money to fund a glamorous lifestyle that included a Lear jet, a powerboat racing team, Las Vegas junkets, Vail ski vacations and South Florida waterfront mansions.

A grand jury in Fort Lauderdale indicted them in 1991 on cocaine-trafficking charges. Magluta was captured at his mansion on LaGorce Island in Miami Beach, and Falcon at a $15,000-a-month rental on Seminole Drive in Fort Lauderdale.

A year after his arrest, Falcon's wife was killed in Coral Gables in what was suspected to be a robbery.

Ann W. O'Neill can be reached at awoneill@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4531.